May Goals 2018

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Well, usually I write goal posts at the beginning of a month but I couldn't get around to it this month, so here we are halfway through May and I've got my goals ready...ha!! I'd love to hear a couple of yours as well.

Continue spring cleaning! This month I want to tackle the entry closet (more on that tomorrow), the pantry and the laundry room. Maybe the windows, too! All we have left to do is the windows! Feels so good to be a bit more organized. We took a huge load to Goodwill a couple weekends ago.

- Take dinner to one of our friends who just had a sweet baby boy. I'm bringing my favorite Flank Steak Tacos in the crockpot. I'll share this recipe soon in an upcoming Meal Planning post. I got them this as their baby gift!They were delicious and the gift was a hit!

- Soak up time with my parents during our Hawaii trip! We leave on Monday! So ready for warmth. The weather forecast isn't actually all that great. Kauai is one of the rainiest places on earth, so we're praying it lets up a little to enjoy the beach, hikes, and some surfing for my husband and dad. You can catch our recap of the trip here and here. Boy, did it rain!!

- Even though Lent is over, I still want to practice my word of "enough". Would you be interested in a post talking about a few things I learned as I gave up shopping for 40 days? Ugh, friends! Still need to do this. Moving it down to this month's goals!

- Get all the details set for our upcoming workshop, Bloom Bash Nashville. This is for creative business owners (or hopefuls!) who want to learn how to grow and sustain a thriving business by diving into how and why to blog and use social media for your business, photography, design / styling, floral arranging, watercolor calligraphy, styled shoots and more. It's such a fun two days! Tickets close Friday. I can't wait to experience Nashville! Absolutely LOVED Nashville! I can't wait to share the recap with you.

- Send out my monthly Safer Beauty newsletter. I love compiling this information to share with my readers! If you want more info on safe and non-toxic beauty, I'd love to get it in your hands once a month. You can sign up here.This newsletter is going out THIS WEEK because I just couldn't get it together last month ;)

- Finish decorating one of my client's houses that's in the Parade of Homes in May. Excited to finally share this with you soon.This is SO close to being done! The Parade starts May 25th.

- My husband recently got a new job that we're so thankful for and I want to go over there and get a tour of the new building and have lunch with him this month. Also moving this down to this month. Ha! Clearly, April was busy ;)

- Make a homemade dessert. Yum! Taking suggestions :) Yeah....nope, didn't happen. But my husband did make us milkshakes and they were amazing!! Does this count?! Ha. Also, we ate WELL in Nashville so I feel like this made up for it.

Well, I kinda stunk at my goals last month, huh?! It's okay, though. New month, even though we're halfway through it already! I can't keep up these days (so many fun and new design projects!). Because of this, I'm keeping it simple this month:

- Write about my Lent experience.

- Send out my Safer Beauty Tribe Newsletter this week.

- Go have lunch with my husband at his new office.

- Have a fun Memorial Day Weekend up North with friends!

- Take Lincoln on a couple of walks around the lake nearby to get better at leash walking.

- Really try to honor my business hours and stop working when my husband gets home.

- Watch less TV and do more activities in the evenings! We just played cards last night and it was so fun. We also have a study guide associated with the sermon series going on at our church right now, so we want to go through that together.

- Work out twice a week (whether this be a video in our apartment or walking around the lake or going to the gym)

You got 5 out of 9 done so...not bad! Goals are just that - goals, so give yourself some grace (and thank you for sharing when you don't meet all of them, it's actually really refreshing to see what you do and don't get done and helps me make my own lists.)

Question: how are you teaching Lincoln not to pull on the leash during your walks? My own sweet pup gets so excited and as she is 40 lbs of muscle, it's all I can do to stay upright sometimes. Any advice/tips are welcome! :)

Hi Hannah! Great question ...still figuring it out myself ;) But Lincoln's problem is that he's scared of the cars passing by. She he's not pulling or excited, he's scared which makes him run around my legs. The vet suggested I get him more used to car noises by taking him to a spot that he can hear them but isn't RIGHT next to them driving by. I was saying "It's okay, Lincoln!" but she told me that actually can create more anxiety because the high-pitch comforting tone tells dogs something is wrong or my owner is fearful. So she told me to completely ignore his behavior and instead, try to get him to focus on me with a treat while we walk, make him sit during the walk and reward that, and basically reward anything (even tiny) that he does well! She also suggested sitting with him before the walk and watching cars go by so he knows he's safe. Lol ;) For you, I'd get a training collar / harness (we have one that we use also and he's so much better on it and I don't have to pull him at all!) Our family golden retriever will pull and get too excited without hers. I'm not sure this helped! I hope it gets better! :)

Oh wow, that's actually great advice! I never thought about a comforting tone causing more issues by validating their response but thinking back I can see how that has happened in other situations. She strategically ate the clasp on her gentle lead harness but it did work so well...I guess I'm going to have buy another one of those. Thank you for sharing and responding so quickly, Micheala!